These Sketches Prove There is a Line Between Genius and Insanity

It's hard to imagine that most of the items and products in your homes were at one time just an idea that someone scribbled onto a crumpled piece of paper, but if these wacky US patent proposals complied by US Patent Illustrations go to show anything, it's that there's a thin line separating insanity and intelligence.

Mixing patent drawings and conceptions from 2012 all the way back to the 1940s, this compilation of failed and achieved product designs acts like a visual history of the way people thought technology would be heading in the future.